Years ago, Joy (Mitzi Gaynor), Sybil (Kay Kendall), and Angèle (Taina Elg) worked as dancers for Berry Nichols (Gene Kelly) in his show, Barry Nichols and Les Girls. Since then Sybil has married Sir Gerald Wren (Leslie Phillips) and written a gossipy book about their past, and Angèle, now married to the rich Pierre Ducros (Jacques Bergerac), sues for libel. In court, three different accounts of events are told, which cannot all be true, but do say a great deal about who these people are.
I saw Les Girls before I saw Rashomon, or even knew what it was. Rashomon has a remarkable legacy, and Les Girls, released seven years later, is where that starts. And here’s where I become a heretic; I think Les Girls does a better job with the Rashomon effect. Truth is subjective, and there is no way to determine reality as there is no single reality to determine. So yeah, this is a musical comedy that gets as deep as an artsy drama, with 50% less pretension.
It’s clear in Les Girls that each storyteller is purposefully leaving out elements, and also lying at times. But mostly each is recounting things as they perceived them. Was Sybil a drunkard? Was Joy sleeping around? Was Berry a hypocrite? Who had a relationship with whom, and is there an answer to any of those questions? Hint: there isn’t.
If that sounds overly serious, it isn’t. This isn’t a drama; it’s barely a musical with just six numbers in two hours, and only two of them are off of a stage. This is a comedy, and it’s funny, and surprisingly engaging. Kendall is normally singled out, and I don’t disagree as she’s a hoot, both with delivering hysterical lines and with physical comedy, but the rest of the cast uphold their ends.
The dances are strong as well—not surprising with Kelly involved. The Biker-parody ballet is pure Kelly at his best. Gaynor and Elg keep up with him, and Kendall does well enough for the part she plays. None of the routines break new ground, but they are excellent examples of their type.
What keeps Les Girls from being remembered as fondly as other Kelly vehicles is the lack of an unforgettable, hummable song. As a whole, the music, the last written by Cole Porter for the movies, is better than in Summer Stock or On the Town, but those had Get Happy and New York, New York. You tend to forget that On the Town doesn’t have anything else because you’re humming New York, New York when it’s done. Les Girls has You’re Just Too Too! And Ladies in Waiting, which are fine songs and work great in the film, but I don’t feel the need to pick up the soundtrack album to listen to them on their own.
Where it is remembered fondly, besides Kendall, is in its set design and costuming. It won the Oscar for best costumes, and rightly so. The Ladies In Waiting faux-nude backs must have instigated some interesting discussions by the censors. The entire film looks fabulous, but it’s hard to think of anything besides those lone ribbons the girls wear on their butts.
Les Girls is smart and fun, and never received the recognition it deserved.
My other reviews of Gene Kelly films: Cover Girl (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), The Pirate (1948), Words and Music (1948), On the Town (1949), Summer Stock (1950), An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), It’s Always Fair Weather (1955), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).